We’re pausing to reflect and give thanks with our Top 10 Gratitude List from 2024. Today is . . .

If not, then according to Jeffrey J. Selingo's article “Higher Ed’s Grim New Normal” in The Chronicle, we're in trouble:

“The challenges facing higher education are significant, but they also present an opportunity to fundamentally rethink how institutions can collaborate. The successful colleges of tomorrow won’t be those that simply try to weather the storm through austerity measures, but those that reimagine their operational models by focusing on their core educational mission — the value-added part of their work — while shedding or partnering on processes common across all of higher education.”

After reading that, I shouted, “Yes, YES!” This is exactly what we’ve been trying to do with the Traveler Trainer PRO (TTP).

EVERY institution sending students abroad has a baseline duty of care to train them to manage their health and safety. Since so many of those topics are COMMON to all institutions, why should each keep operating independently, eating up hours and hours of staff time and energy that could be better spent on the value-added parts of education abroad?

Additionally, I regularly hear from EA offices how their pre-departure orientations just aren’t effective with Gen Z. Either they cram in too much information and give students cognitive overload, or the delivery is so boring that students fall asleep.

To put it bluntly, if you can’t first capture and then keep someone’s attention, you can’t teach them anything.

At WorldKind, we believed that if we partnered across institutions, we could build one best-practice pre-departure training. We'd have the resources to create a gamified and animated program that could capture students’ attention.

Using scenario-based learning delivered in bite-sized modules, we could pace information delivery and boost memory retention.

And by delivering it asynchronously, we could reduce staff loads and free up their time to focus on the value-added, relationship-based services we all want to provide.

Perhaps, Dr. Patty Sagasti Suppes (Stockton University) says it best though:

"The TTP is a great tool because it is not used to replace in-person contact but as a tool to support it. It allows for real-life follow-up by taking away the need to cover standard topics. The TTP allows EA staff to address issues students bring to them, to focus on more specific information applicable to their destinations and programs, and to have deeper conversations without spending too much time on the basics."

Well, we’re so thankful that in 2024, seven new institutional partners agreed, and we’re proud to say that the TTP is now transcontinental--training students across the U.S. before they go global.

Thanks so much to Stockton University, Tarleton State University, College of Charleston, Pacific Lutheran University, Northern Illinois University, Hollins University, and Amideast for trusting us in 2024!

Curious to hear more about what our partners have to say about working with WorldKind? Read what they think HERE.